Dhibin ذيبين Dhaybin, Thibin | |
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Village | |
  Dhibin Location in Syria | |
| Coordinates:32°26′13″N36°33′53″E / 32.43694°N 36.56472°E /32.43694; 36.56472 | |
| Grid position | 297/205 |
| Country |  Syria |
| Governorate | As-Suwayda |
| District | Salkhad |
| Subdistrict | Dhibin |
| Population (2004) | |
• Total | 2,562 |
Dhibin (Arabic:ذيبين; also spelledDhaybin orThibin) is a village in southernSyria, administratively part of theSalkhad District of theal-Suwayda Governorate. It is located south ofal-Suwayda, near the southernborder withJordan. Nearby localities includeBakka to the north,Salkhad to the northeast,Umm al-Rumman to the east,Samaj to the west andSamad to the northwest. In the 2004 census it had a population of 2,562. It is the administrative center of the Dhibin Nahiyah, which consisted of three villages with a collective population of 6,900 in 2004.[1]
Dhibin was a mainly grain-growing village in the late 16th century, duringOttoman rule.[2] In the Ottomantax registers of 1596, it was a village located thenahiya (subdistrict) of Butayna, in theQadaa of Hauran. It had a population of twelve households and four bachelors, allMuslims. They paid a fixed tax-rate of 25% on agricultural products, including wheat, barley, summer crops, goats and beehives, in addition to occasional revenues; a total of 1,000akçe.[3]
By the early 19th century, the village had been abandoned like many of the other villages ofJabal Hauran due toBedouin depredations.[2] Druze migrants from other parts of Syria populated the villages of Jabal Hauran by the 1860s. Dhibin became part of the sheikhdom of theBani al-Atrash clan under the leadership ofIsmail al-Atrash between 1860 and 1867.[4] The inhabitants of Dhibin moved to annex and seasonally inhabit the village ofUmm el-Jimal (in modern-dayJordan) in 1909.[5] Dhibin's families divided the ruins of its ancient houses among themselves in 1910.[5] They lived there on and off until around 1930, when they permanently abandoned Umm al-Jimal.[5] Dhibin was the birthplace ofSalim Hatum, a Syrian Army officer and key participant in theBaathist-led1966 Syrian coup d'état.[6]
Funerary material from the Middle Bronze Age has been found at Dhibin.[7] A mid-4th-century inscription on a ruined building recording the name of Roman emperorValentinian I has been found in the village as well.[8]
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